Singson brod wins House seat

MANILA, Philippines -  Vigan City Vice Mayor Ryan Luis Singson was proclaimed yesterday as the new representative of the first congressional district of Ilocos Sur, replacing his older brother Ronald.

The Ilocos Sur Provincial Board of Canvassers proclaimed Singson, who got 71,955 votes, at 1 a.m. yesterday.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Elias Yusoph said Singson’s rival Bertrand Baterina, nephew of former congressman Salacnib Baterina, got 30,445 votes.

Singson emerged the winner in all the eleven towns of the congressional district, including Vigan.

Yusoph said 63.55 percent of the more than 161,000 voters in the district had voted.

Yusoph explained Singson would have to step down as vice mayor of Vigan City.

Singson would be replaced by the city councilor who got the highest number of votes in the May 2010 election.

Singson is scheduled to take his oath before Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. as the new member of the House of Representatives today.

Singson will officially take over the post vacated by his elder brother who had to resign last March after being sentenced to 18 months in prison in Hong Kong for illegal drug possession.

The former Rep. Singson was convicted by the Hong Kong Wan Chai District Court for drug trafficking. He was arrested in January last year after airport authorities seized 6.67 grams of cocaine in his possession.

Despite his elder brother’s conviction, Singson enjoyed a wide margin of victory over Baterina.

Singson even beat Baterina in his own turf in Barangay Pussuac, Santo Domingo town.

Comelec said the polls had been generally peaceful and orderly even as the poll watchdog National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) yesterday expressed concerns over vote buying in some areas.

Namfrel conceded though that the election “has been peaceful with no reports of violence or any untoward incident.”

“Namfrel is concerned about the rampant vote buying that was reported to and observed by our provincial volunteers,” the group said in a statement.

Namfrel cited Vigan, where supposed representatives of the candidates had resorted to vote buying on the last day of the campaign on May 26.

The group said its provincial chairman had reported last week that some barangay officials were giving away money “in exchange for votes for one of the candidates.”

“Our chairman reported that the amount given to barangay captains was P3,000; P2,000 for barangay councilors and P250 for the heads of the families,” Namfrel said.

Vote buying was also reported in the town of Sta. Catalia where the Namfrel provincial chair was even advised by a local coordinator not to send volunteers anymore because the position had already been “bought.”

“Namfrel has always condemned money politics and the utilization of barangays in vote buying, especially since barangays are supposed to be non-partisan,” the group said. –With Teddy Molina, Artemio Dumlao